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First Light
Young Indian Classical Musicians Presenting Rare Art Music and Stories
Performers
The First Light concert and conversation series present young Hindustani and Carnatic musicians in an intimate, informal and interactive setting. Presented on a Sunday morning, these thoughtfully curated concerts will feature a group of young, emerging musicians who are talented, sensitive and capable of independent thinking and critical enquiry, from across India.
They will attempt to engage with their respective lineages and the traditional as well as the lesser performed material they have received, in distinctive ways. The musicians are encouraged to present a repertoire that reflects their long years of training, core aesthetic influences and values as well as their individual outlooks and interpretation.
The young musicians are also encouraged to interact with their listeners and explain the nuances of the music and its cultural history as a way of learning communication skills and investing in the building of audiences for the form early on in their careers. This concert too will be accompanied by a component of conversations.
These concerts and conversations featuring young musicians are a part of Kishima Arts Foundation’s Indian Classical Music & Performing Arts Public Digital Archive Project 2022-28 which seeks to document Gurus/senior artists and also encourage younger, talented classical musicians to delve deeper into their traditions to try and present lesser performed and exquisite compositions along with stories of their respective lineages.
In its fifth edition, the series presents a group of Carnatic musicians from Chennai and Bangalore.
In collaboration with:
Supported by:
Performers
Nanditha Kannan
Nanditha Kannan was born in Chennai on 20 April 2005. Nanditha hails from a family ofmusicians; with rich maternal lineage including Vidwan Shri Pallavi Doraisami Iyer (great grandfather of Veena Sabesa Iyer) and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Vidwan Shri Veena Sabesa Iyer (great grandfather of Nanditha Kannan).
Nanditha Kannan was introduced to Carnatic music at a tender age of 4 by her mother, Lakshmi Kannan, who recognized her innate talent and nurtured it with love and care. Later she spent her formative years of learning under late Smt. Shankari Natarajan, who took special interest in teaching Nanditha the nuances of Bhava, focusing on the emotion apart from the technicalities.
Today, Nanditha is blessed to be under the tutelage of Vidwan Shri R K Shriramkumar. A genius of his own accord R.K.Shriramkumar has played a pivotal role in sculpting Nanditha’s repertoire, her manodharmam and making her concert ready.
Nanditha is currently pursuing her 2nd year in BA Economics and Public Policy in Sastra University, Chennai. She finished her schooling with PSBB, Chennai where they encouraged and nourished her inclination to arts (especially music); this augmented her desire to take music with curiosity and fervour. She stood first in her school’s 12th std commerce stream and emerged as the topper of the batch of 2022-23.
Over the years, Nanditha has participated and won many district, state, national, and international level vocal music competitions and bagged many prizes and awards.
Sandeep Ramachandran
Sandeep Ramachandran started learning the violin from the age of 6 and had his initial tutoring from the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society. He subsequently came under the tutelage of Shri RK Shriramkumar and has been playing concerts across India for the past 12 years. He is a regular participant in the Chennai December Music Festival.
Kaushik Sridhar
Kaushik is highly passionate about Music and Mridangam since his early years and started right from the age of 6 under Sri Vinay Nagarajan and then in 2014 started taking advance lessons under the tutelage of senior Mridanga Vidwan Sri Trichur R Mohan. Kaushik has won many competitions and awards, namely from the Madras Music Academy, Rasika Ranjana Sabha, and L Subramanium School of Music.
R Karthik
R. Karthik is an All India Radio ‘A’ graded Carnatic classical music artist specialising in the Khanjira. Born on September 9, 1986, Karthik began learning the Mridangam at the age of 7 and progressed to mastering the Khanjira under the guidance of Vid. C. P. Vyasavittala, a disciple of the renowned G. Harishankar. Karthik has won numerous accolades, including the prestigious “A Grade” from All India Radio in 2016 and the Kalavanta award from the Karnataka Fine Arts Council in 2015. He has performed with many eminent artists and young musicians, building a distinguished career in Carnatic music.
